Five Alarm Funk - Boots & Wheels EP (Self-Released)

Artist Info: Some bands want to change the world. Five Alarm Funk’s goal is much simpler. They want you to sweat.

That’s been the idea since the first time drummer Tayo Branston, guitarist Gabe Boothroyd and the original Five Alarm bassist Neil Towers met at a Vancouver house party in 2003. Since that night, the temperature in their leafy green hometown began to rise. Other musicians started showing up to jam. The parties led to gigs locally, which led a few years later to grinding bus tours across Canada and into the States. The crowds grew. The grooves burned. A horn section jumped onboard to punch the beat harder. Percussion cranked it up even more. EPs and albums followed, as studios and gear melted down from the sheer intensity these guys unleashed.No wonder they called their last album Sweat.

And now Five Alarm Funk amps up the heat with an ambitious project that involves raiding their own catalog and inviting some of their heroes to join them. Long known for their percussive gang vocals, they’ve have amassed a library of largely instrumental, chant-punched performances. The first of these is a match they might only have dreamed of when they were just starting to rock those house parties.

“I’ve been a Bootsy Collins fan ever since I was 15,” Branston marvels. “That track we gave him, ‘Capital City,’ is one of the funkiest things we’ve ever cut. With that experience and our back catalog, you’ll see a lot more of this from us.”Future releases and reissues with all-star rappers and funksters. Sights set on bringing their magic to festivals throughout the world. More sweat, more dancing ... more Five Alarm Funk.